Description: This beautifully hand coloured original antique map of what is today modern Venezuela, northern South America was published in the 1639 French Edition of Mercator's Atlas by Mercators successors Jan Jansson & Henricus Hondius.This map is in stunning condition on bright heavy stable paper. with original margins and beautiful original colour.

Background:This map, showing the area of modern Venezuela to the north of the Orinoco valley is another of the early group of maps added to Mercators atlas by Jansson and Hondius, after Joan Blaeus map of the 1630's. It extends from Lago de Maracaibo in the west to the Island of Trinidad in the east and also shows the Dutch held is lands of Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire which served as the base of the Geotroyeerde West Indische Compahnie or Netherlands West Indian Company, since 1634. Of the three great rivers of South America, the Orinoco was, and remains, the most difficult to navigate. It was the last to yield any of its secrets even though, on his third voyage in 1498, Columbus had noted the strong currents of fresh water from the Orinoco and believed himself to be at the mouth of one of the four rivers of Paradise>Throughout the sixteenth century, attempts were made to search for the legendary kingdom of El Dorado, but it was not until the three Orinoco voyages of Antonio de Berrio between 1584 and 1591, all starting out from bases in Nueva Granada, that any useful knowledge of the interior was gathered. Berrio never found El Dorado, but he made several discoveries of the river valleys of the interior. By a curious twist of fate, Berrio, whilst waiting in Trinidad for further orders from Spain, was captured by Sir Walter Raleigh, to whom he divulged his knowledge of the region, as well as a great deal of intended misinformation